Bentley says ‘be like King’ at MLK event

Tuesday

Jan 17, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By Dana BeyerleMontgomery Bureau Chief

MONTGOMERY | When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke near the Capitol steps at the conclusion of the famous Selma-to-Montgomery march 47 years ago, a segregationist governor watched from his office while huddled behind a curtain.On Monday, a different white governor stood on those steps and addressed the crowd during the annual tribute to the civil rights leader.While perhaps unremarkable today that a white governor, and a Republican at that, would attend a largely black event, in the minds of older celebrants, Gov. Robert Bentley’s brief speech at the Martin Luther King Jr. tribute was an indication of how far race relations in Alabama have come.State Rep. Alvin Holmes, who organized the event, said Bentley wasn’t shamed into appearing at the event, which was attended by several thousand people.“He wanted to come,” said Holmes, D-Montgomery. “He called me three times asking if we were still planning it.”Bentley, Holmes and state Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, grew up in the segregated South. They have witnessed King’s efforts result in the end of official government segregation, which blocked blacks’ access to voting, employment, accommodations and transportation.“Be like King” was the message Monday from Bentley, a conservative Republican who was born in rural Shelby County and who took office one year ago today after representing Tuscaloosa in the Legislature.“It’s a pleasure to be here to celebrate the birthday of a great man,” said Bentley, who retired from his Tuscaloosa medical practice after more than three decades to run for governor. “He meant a lot not only to the entire state but to this country.”Bentley said the April 27 tornadoes that killed nearly 250 people in Alabama brought blacks and whites together during the recovery.“As we meet the difficulties, let’s continue Dr. King’s message to be brothers and sisters,” said Bentley, who attended a unity breakfast earlier in the day in Huntsville.The late King was born Jan. 19, 1929. He was the pastor of a Baptist church one block from the Capitol and led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott that broke the back of Jim Crow segregation in public transportation. It propelled him to a national leadership role.President Lyndon Johnson signed the civil rights bill into law in 1964 after King’s passionate 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington. King in 1965 led a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Violence started by then-Gov. George Wallace’s state troopers horrified a nation and led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.The march from Selma ended with King’s speech at the foot of the State Capitol steps, with Wallace peeking out his office window. They never met. King died in May 1968, assassinated while in Memphis. Wallace later said he renounced his segregationist past.Holmes noted that a flag pole on the dome of the Capitol that served as a backdrop to speeches by Bentley, House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, and local officials once supported a Confederate battle flag. Ironically, the state also observes Jan. 19 as the birth date of Civil War Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.Holmes and Knight, who are black, are members of the most integrated Legislature in the country. Alabama’s House and Senate roughly reflect its white-black population ratio.Although only individuals know what is in their hearts, on the surface race relations have improved, Holmes and others said.Samuel L. Webb Jr. of Tuscaloosa, a retired history professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who grew up in the rural Black Belt, said race relations are better than “when I was a kid, no question.”He said Alabama’s racial past was so bad that a lot of people would like to forget that it occurred. “The truth of the matter is in a lot of places and in some of the more educated and affluent areas of this state you scratch hard enough that old racism is still there,” Webb said.Knight said legal segregation no longer exists but that discrimination remains in employment and economic opportunities. “Nobody can deny the changes since the 1950s and 1960s but the challenge is to continue the progress we’ve made,” he said.Knight and Webb said that having a black president, Barack Obama, sometimes brings out true feelings disguised as political rhetoric.“I had fellow came up to me and start just blasting Obama. He has no real specifics why he despised Obama so much,” Webb said. “I just told him it’s race.”The fact that the King observance was attended overwhelmingly by blacks indicates that barriers between blacks and whites still exist. Bentley’s inauguration a year ago today was mostly a white affair.Holmes said Bentley’s appearance at the King tribute was “good for the state” that has received national attention over a controversial anti-immigration law that Bentley signed last year. The law is being challenged in federal court.Bentley said the law isn’t based on racism but on the federal government’s refusal to enforce immigration laws.

By Dana BeyerleMontgomery Bureau Chief

MONTGOMERY | When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke near the Capitol steps at the conclusion of the famous Selma-to-Montgomery march 47 years ago, a segregationist governor watched from his office while huddled behind a curtain.On Monday, a different white governor stood on those steps and addressed the crowd during the annual tribute to the civil rights leader.While perhaps unremarkable today that a white governor, and a Republican at that, would attend a largely black event, in the minds of older celebrants, Gov. Robert Bentley’s brief speech at the Martin Luther King Jr. tribute was an indication of how far race relations in Alabama have come.State Rep. Alvin Holmes, who organized the event, said Bentley wasn’t shamed into appearing at the event, which was attended by several thousand people.“He wanted to come,” said Holmes, D-Montgomery. “He called me three times asking if we were still planning it.”Bentley, Holmes and state Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, grew up in the segregated South. They have witnessed King’s efforts result in the end of official government segregation, which blocked blacks’ access to voting, employment, accommodations and transportation.“Be like King” was the message Monday from Bentley, a conservative Republican who was born in rural Shelby County and who took office one year ago today after representing Tuscaloosa in the Legislature.“It’s a pleasure to be here to celebrate the birthday of a great man,” said Bentley, who retired from his Tuscaloosa medical practice after more than three decades to run for governor. “He meant a lot not only to the entire state but to this country.”Bentley said the April 27 tornadoes that killed nearly 250 people in Alabama brought blacks and whites together during the recovery.“As we meet the difficulties, let’s continue Dr. King’s message to be brothers and sisters,” said Bentley, who attended a unity breakfast earlier in the day in Huntsville.The late King was born Jan. 19, 1929. He was the pastor of a Baptist church one block from the Capitol and led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott that broke the back of Jim Crow segregation in public transportation. It propelled him to a national leadership role.President Lyndon Johnson signed the civil rights bill into law in 1964 after King’s passionate 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington. King in 1965 led a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Violence started by then-Gov. George Wallace’s state troopers horrified a nation and led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.The march from Selma ended with King’s speech at the foot of the State Capitol steps, with Wallace peeking out his office window. They never met. King died in May 1968, assassinated while in Memphis. Wallace later said he renounced his segregationist past.Holmes noted that a flag pole on the dome of the Capitol that served as a backdrop to speeches by Bentley, House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, and local officials once supported a Confederate battle flag. Ironically, the state also observes Jan. 19 as the birth date of Civil War Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.Holmes and Knight, who are black, are members of the most integrated Legislature in the country. Alabama’s House and Senate roughly reflect its white-black population ratio.Although only individuals know what is in their hearts, on the surface race relations have improved, Holmes and others said.Samuel L. Webb Jr. of Tuscaloosa, a retired history professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who grew up in the rural Black Belt, said race relations are better than “when I was a kid, no question.”He said Alabama’s racial past was so bad that a lot of people would like to forget that it occurred. “The truth of the matter is in a lot of places and in some of the more educated and affluent areas of this state you scratch hard enough that old racism is still there,” Webb said.Knight said legal segregation no longer exists but that discrimination remains in employment and economic opportunities. “Nobody can deny the changes since the 1950s and 1960s but the challenge is to continue the progress we’ve made,” he said.Knight and Webb said that having a black president, Barack Obama, sometimes brings out true feelings disguised as political rhetoric.“I had fellow came up to me and start just blasting Obama. He has no real specifics why he despised Obama so much,” Webb said. “I just told him it’s race.”The fact that the King observance was attended overwhelmingly by blacks indicates that barriers between blacks and whites still exist. Bentley’s inauguration a year ago today was mostly a white affair.Holmes said Bentley’s appearance at the King tribute was “good for the state” that has received national attention over a controversial anti-immigration law that Bentley signed last year. The law is being challenged in federal court.Bentley said the law isn’t based on racism but on the federal government’s refusal to enforce immigration laws.